__          1434 

0  -"  ~ 

I  -Markets  4.  t    I    B    FT  *A?  '   V         Issued  June  8> 1917' 

United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 

7  1  OFFICE  OF  MARKETS  AND  RURAL  ORGANIZATION. 

4  gl    -^  CHARLES  J.  BRAND,  Chief. 


.  ^JLIMINARY  REPORT  ON  APPLE-PACKING  HOUSES  IN 
THE  NORTHWEST. 

By  W.  M.  SCOTT  and  W.  B.  ALWOOD,  Specialists  in  Fruit  Grading  and  Standardi- 
zation. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 


Introduction . 

Community  packing  houses ^ 

Community  packing-house  equipment.  5 
L'acking-house  organization  and  per- 
sonnel—            17 


'  Page. 

A  suggested  floor  unit 19 

Some  of  the  details  of  operation 24 

The     operations      in      two     typical 

houses 28 


INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  States  of  Washington  and  Oregon  during  the  apple-packing 
season  of  1916  this  office  conducted  an  investigation  of  the  handling 
of  apples  from  the  orchard  to  and  through  the  packing  house  and 
into  the  cars  ready  for  shipment  to  market.  This  work  was  under- 
taken at  the  solicitation  of  various  fruit-growers'  associations  and  in- 
dividuals who  urged  the  need  of  assistance  in  working  out  efficient 
and  economical  methods  of  handling  apples  through  the  packing 
house.  The  prospective  increase  in  the  production  of  fruit  in  the 
Pacific  Northwest  as  the  orchards  grow  older,  and  the  growing 
-rarcity  of  labor  for  handling  large  quantities  of  fruit  in  so  short  a 
period,  greatly  emphasize  the  importance  of  this  problem. 

The  investigations  centered  around  community  or  central  packing 
houses.,  which  are  growing  in  popularity  and  which  give  promise  of 
greatly  facilitating  the  handling  of  the  apple  crop.  Until  1916  the 
handling  of  apples  through  community  houses  had  not  been  prac- 
ticed to  any  considerable  extent,  and  the  best  methods  to  be  employed 
had  not  been  determined.  In  1916  many  new  houses  were  built  for 
this  purpose  and  put  into  operation.  The  size  of  house  required  to 
handle  a  given  quantity  of  fruit  was  largely  a  matter  of  speculation, 
and  the  equipment  necessary  for  the  best  and  most  economical  results 

99438°— 17 1 


2  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST, 

had  not  been  determined,  so  that  the  venture  was,  in  part  at  least, 
experimental. 

The  purpose  of  the  investigation  was  to  determine  the  best  and 
most  economical  methods  of  handling  apples  through  all  the  oper- 
ations of  picking,  hauling  from  the  orchard,  receiving  at  the  pack- 
ing house,  grading,  sizing,  packing,  storing,  and  loading  on  the  cars. 
This  involved  a  study  of  packing-house  plans,  location,  equipment, 
management,  cost  of  operation,  and  storage  facilities. 

OwTing  to  unfavorable  conditions  that  developed  after  the  season 
opened,  some  of  the  detailed  experiments  contemplated  in  the  origi- 
nal plan  could  not  be  carried  out.  The  scarcity  of  labor  and  the 
shortage  of  cars  for  moving  the  fruit  to  market  resulted  in  a  con- 
gested condition  in  all  of  the  packing  houses  visited  and  consider- 
able confusion  in  some  of  them.  It  became  necessary,  therefore, 
to  limit  the  work  largely  to  the  making  of  observations  and  con- 
ducting such  tests  as  would  not  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  pack- 
ing-house operations. 

A  floor  plan  showing  the  arrangement  of  the  equipment  was 
made  of  each  of  the  more  important  houses  and  facilities  for  storing 
packed  and  unpacked  fruit  were  noted.  Sizing  machines  were 
tested  for  accuracy  and  efficiency  and  for  their  effect  on  the  physical 
condition  of  the  fruit.  Methods  of  handling  the  fruit  through  every 
operation  from  the  receiving  door  to  the  car  were  studied,  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  different  methods  compared.  Individual  or  ranch 
packing  houses  and  operations  were  included  in  the  investigations, 
so  that  the  efficiency  and  economy  of  the  two  systems  might  be  com- 
pared. 

The  investigations  were  conducted  in  60  packing  houses  located 
at  or  near  Spokane,  North  Yakima,  Wenatchee,  Cashmere,  Entiat, 
Pateros,  Brewster,  Okanogan,  Omak,  and  Walla  Walla,  Wash. ;  and 
Hood  River  and  Medford,  Oreg.  Of  these  60  houses,  33  were  oper- 
ated as  community  .houses,  7  were  operated  by  dealers  somewhat  on 
the  community  plan,  and  20  were  ranch  houses.  Although  observa- 
tions were  made  in  all  of  the  60  houses  visited,  only  the  more 
important  were  investigated  in  detail. 

It  would  be  unwise  to  attempt  to  draw  definite  conclusions  from  a 
single  season's  work  on  a  problem  of  this  kind,  and  it  is  not  the 
purpose  of  this  publication  to  do  so,  but  rather  to  furnish  interested 
organizations  and  individuals  with  such  of  the  information  obtained 
as  may  be  of  value  in  connection  with  the  construction  and  equip- 
ping of  new  houses  and  the  reorganizing  and  rearranging  of  old 
ones. 

COMMUNITY  PACKING  HOUSES. 

The  conditions  existing  in  the  principal  apple-growing  districts 
of  the  Northwest  make  the  handling  of  apples  through  community 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST.  3 

or  central  packing  houses  more  desirable  and  more  practicable  there 
than  in  the  East.  The  fruit  interests  of  the  Northwest  are  located 
largely  in  numerous  small  areas  where  a  central  packing  plant  can 
accommodate  a  large  number  of  growers,  and  with  few  exceptions 
the  orchards  are  comparatively  small,  ranging  mostly  from  5  to  15 
acres. 

It  is  estimated  that  about  one- fourth  of  the  1916  apple  crop  of 
Washington  and  Oregon  was  packed  in  community  houses,  although 
no  definite  figures  are  available  to  substantiate  this  assumption.  The 
community  packing-house  idea  is  growing  rapidly,  and  it  seems 
•probable  that  within  the  next  few  years  most  of  the  apples  grown 
in  the  Northwest  will  be  packed  in  such  houses.  The  labor  situation 
renders  it  increasingly  difficult  to  handle  the  fruit  properly  at  the 
growers'  ranches.  Apparently  the  organization  of  labor  and  facili- 
ties must  fall  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  associations  with 
capital  sufficient  to  provide  buildings  and  appliances  for  the  efficient 
handling  of  the  crop.  One  of  the  most  pressing  needs  observed  is 
the  necessity  for  the  better  housing  and  subsisting  of  the  force,  but 
this  is  aside  from  the  subject  under  consideration,  except  that  it  ap- 
pears to  be  one  of  the  factors  which  will  operate  toward  centralization 
of  the  work.  The  advantages  of  the  community  over  the  individual 
or  ranch  plan  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows: 

Better  and  more  uniform  grading  and  packing  can  be  obtained 
with  an  efficient  organization  of  trained  men  handling  a  large  quan- 
tity of  fruit  than  with  a  number  of  small  units  operating  inde- 
pendently. 

The  central  packing  plant  is  in  a  better  position  to  cope  with 
the  labor  problem  than  is  the  individual  grower.  It  can  obtain 
experienced  labor  more  readily  and  can  use  inexperienced  labor  more 
effectively.  In  community  packing  schools  local  men,  women,  and 
children  can  be  trained  quickly  to  do  good  work  under  competent 
supervision.  The  individual  grower  usually  is  not  able  to  supply 
the  strict  supervision  necessary  to  obtain  the  best  results  from  such 
labor.  '• 

The  Handling  of  a  large  quantity  of  fruit  through  one  central 
plant  makes  possible  the  use  of  expensive  labor-saving  equipment, 
such  as  sizing  machines  and  gravity  conveyors,  which  the  small 
grower  could  not  well  afford.  Such  equipment,  although  not  essen- 
tial, greatly  facilitates  the  handling  of  the  crop. 

The  central  plant  also  simplifies  and  facilitates  the  inspection 
work  which  is  one  of  the  essentials  in  the  successful  marketing  of 
the  crop.  One  inspector  in  a  community  house  can  accomplish  the 
same  work  that  would  require  several  inspectors  working  in  the 
orchards,  and  he  can  do  it  more  thoroughly. 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST. 


It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  instances  were  observed  where 
the  individual  grower  was  doing  fully  as  good  work  as  the  commu- 
nity organization,  and  apparently  at  no  greater  cost.  This  was  par- 
ticularly true  of  some  of  the  growers  whose  operations  were  suffi- 
ciently large  to  warrant  the  employment  of  competent  foremen  and 


FIG.  1. — A  community  packing  house  with  the  operating  space  in  the  center  under 
the  penthouse  structure  and  the  storage  space  in  each  end  on  the  railroad  side. 

the  use  of  suitable  equipment,  but  even  smaller  growers  here  and 
there  were  doing  excellent  work  without  special  equipment. 

Of  the  40  houses  used  for  community  and  commercial  packing,  23 
were  built  primarily  for  packing  apples  (fig.  1),  while  in  two  cases 
tents  were  used  (fig.  2),  and  in  15  cases  warehouses,  old  canneries, 
and  other  buildings  had  been  converted  temporarily  into  packing 


FIG.  2. — Tent  used  for  community  packing,  showing  an  accumulation  of  loose  fruit 

outside. 

houses.  Thirty-five  of  the  houses  were  located  on  railroad  sidings 
and  5  away  from  the  railroad;  27  had  common  storage  and  5  had 
cold-storage  facilities  connected,  while  8  had  no  storage  facilities. 

Of  the  23  houses  built  for  packing  purposes  14  were  constructed 
of  wood,  6  of  hollow  tile,  2  of  brick,  and  1  of  concrete.  The  23  per- 
manent packing  houses  ranged  in  size  from  20  by  60  feet  to  86  by  300 
feet.  The  dimensions  of  approximately  60  by  100  feet  were  more 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST.  5 

common  than  any  other,  and  there  were  about  as  many  larger  houses 
as  smaller. 

The  capacity  of  the  house  is  not  necessarily  determined  by  the  size 
of  the  floor  space.  The  equipment  used,  its  arrangement  on  the 
floor,  the  efficiency  of  the  working  force,  and  the  space  occupied  by 
unpacked  fruit  are  all  important  factors.  A  certain  house  with  1,200 
square  feet  of  floor  space  was  packing  600  boxes  daily,  while  another 
house  with  2,400  square  feet  was  packing  only  400  boxes.  A  certain 
other  house  with  6,000  square  feet  of  space  was  packing  1,400  boxes 
a  day,  while  another  of  double  the  floor  space  was  packing  only  1,800 
boxes,  and  still  another  with  24,000  square  feet  of  space  was  packing 
only  1,500  boxes.  It  appears  from  the  observations  made  that  a 
house  with  5,000  square  feet  of  floor  space  properly  equipped  and 
arranged  would  accommodate  a  daily  output  of  1,200  to  1,500  boxes 
of  packed  fruit,  and  provide  storage  space  for  an  accumulation  of 
6,000  boxes  of  loose  fruit  from  the  orchards,  but  no  space  for  packed 
fruit. 

COMMUNITY  PACKING-HOUSE  EQUIPMENT. 

Where  machinery  was  not  used  the  usual  equipment  observed  con- 
sisted of  sorting  tables,  packing  bins,  packing  stands,  nailing  presses, 
stamping  devices  and  box  trucks.  Many  of  the  houses  were 
equipped  with  sizing  machines,  sorting  belts,  and  gravity  conveyors. 
In-  some  of  the  houses  sloping  wooden  slides  were  used  as  substitutes 
for  gravity  conveyors,  or  to  supplement  them,  for  carrying  the  fruit 
short  distances.  Of  the  40  community  houses  investigated  21  used 
sizing  machines,  12  used  sorting  belts,  and  7  had  no  power  ma- 
chinery; 12  used  gravity  conveyors;  9  used  wooden  slides;  and  19 
handled  the  fruit  entirely  with  trucks  and  by  hand. 

SIZING  MACHINES. 

Four  different  makes  of  sizing  machines  were  observed  in  use, 
three  of  which  sized  the  fruit  by  gravity  and  one  by  diameter. 
Twenty  of  the  houses  were  equipped  with  the  former  type  and  one 
with  the  latter.  Two  other  machines,  which  sized  by  diameter,  were 
observed  in  houses  not  included  in  the  investigation.  Sizing  by 
weight  or  gravity  insures  accuracy  regardless  of  the  shape  of  the 
specimens  and  results  in  a  minimum  amount  of  injury  to  the  fruit. 

Although  not  essential  to  good  work  the  sizing  machine  appears 
to  be  an  important  part  of  the  packing-house  equipment,  and  its 
importance  will  become  more  evident  as  the  production  of  fruit  in- 
creases and  the  labor  situation  ^becomes  more  acute.  Packers  who 
put  up  unsized  fruit  were  paid  5  cents  per  box,  while  those  who 
packed  machine-sized  fruit  received  4  cents  per  box,  a  reduction  of 
20  per  cent  in  the  labor  cost  of  this  operation.  The  cost  of  operating 
the  machine,  the  interest  on  the  investment,  and  the  depreciation 


6  APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES   IN    THE    NORTHWEST. 

absorb  at  least  a  portion  of  this  difference,  but  no  definite  figures 
showing  these  items  of  expense  are  available. 

Injury  to  the  fruit. — Numerous  examinations  of  machine-sized 
and  hand-sized  fruit  were  made  to  determine  the  amount  of  injury 
caused  by  the  operation.  Although  machine  sizing  resulted  in 
rather  more  injury  to  the  fruit  than  handwork,  this  did  not  appear 
to  be  serious,  and  in  no  instance  was  the  injury  sufficient  to  dis- 
courage the  use  of  machines.  When  the  fruit  was  delivered  from 
the  sizing  cup  with  considerable  momentum  and  rolled  nearly  the 
full  length  of  the  sloping  bins,  bruises  and  stem  punctures  some- 
times resulted,  but  the  most  serious  cause  of  injury  observed  was 
that  of  allowing  the  bins  to  become  full  to  overflowing,  so  that  in 
certain  types  of  machines  the  specimens  discharged  from  the  cups 
not  only  fell  directly  on  the  apples  in  the  bin  but  rolled  over  into  the 
adjacent  bins.  When  the  stem  of  the  falling  apple  struck  the  cheek 
of  one  in  the  bin  the  result  was  usually  a  stem  puncture.  This  con- 
dition was  caused  by  inattention  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  rather 
than  by  any  defect  in  the  machine,  and  should  never  be  permitted  to 
occur. 

Test  for  accuracy. — To  test  the  accuracy  of  the  three  makes  of 
gravity  machines  specimens  of  the  sized  fruit  in  the  several  bins 
of  each  machine  were  weighed  on  postal  scales  and  the  weights  re- 
corded. From  40  to  50  apples  in  each  bin  of  10  machines  in  .7 
houses  were  weighed.  With  few  exceptions  'the  variation  in  the  size 
of  the  fruit  in  any  given  bin  was  not  over  an  ounce,  and  in  most  of 
the  bins  one-half  ounce  covered  the  variation.  The  fruit  in  each 
bin  was  found  to  be  sufficiently  uniform  in  size  for  good  box  pack- 
ing, and  there  was  practically  no  difference  in  the  accuracy  of  the 
work  of  the  three  types  of  gravity  machines.  A  similar  test  was 
made  of  fruit  sized  by  hand,  and  the  results  show  that  the  work  of 
professional  packers,  and  of  many  of  those  with  less  experience, 
was  fully  as  accurate  as  that  of  the  machines;  but,  as  a  rule,  the 
fruit  sized  by  inexperienced  packers  was  not  so  uniform  as  that 
sized  by  the  machines.  This  was  especially  true  of  fruit  packed 
at  the  orchards. 

Details  of  machines. — In  figure  7  are  shown  the  floor  lines  for  the 
proper  clearance  of  several  types  of  machines  when  set  up  with  such 
accessories  as  seem  to  be  necessary.  These  machines  and  their  acces- 
sories are  shown  in  the  outline  drawings  in  figures  3,  4,  and  5.  A 
number  of  machines  are  in  use  for  sorting  and  sizing  fruit,  but  those 
selected  for  illustration  show  the  principal  types  now  commonly  used 
in  the  Northwest.  They  are  well-known  types  and  are  readily  avail- 
able to  those  who  wish  to  install  them. 

The  machine  shown  in  figure  3  sizes  by  gravity  and  is  provided 
with  a  sorting  belt,  which  is  an  endless  web,  power  driven,  and  car- 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 


8  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE   NORTHWEST. 

ries  the  fruit  from,  the  hopper  to  the  sorter,  who  grades  and  places  it 
in  the  lines  to  the  sizing  device.  This  machine  will  size  only  two 
grades  at  one  operation.  The  sizing  is  accomplished  by  an  apparatus 
which  controls  a  circle  of  16  cups  carried  on  the  inner  circle  shown 
at  each  end  of  the  sorting  belt.  An  elevator  receives  the  fruit  from 
the  narrow  lines  at  each  side  of  the  sorting  belt  and  delivers  it  to 
the  cups  so  that  the  apple  falls  directly  into  a  cup  as  it  passes  the 
end  of  the  elevator.  These  cups  are  supported  upon  arms  which  are 
so  balanced  by  an  adjustable  mechanical  device  that  the  fruit  is 
dropped  into  the  bins  shown  around  the  circle.  Thus  10  sizes  can 
be  made  with  very  reasonable  accuracy. 

The  circle  of  cups  revolves  once  in  6  seconds  when  run  at  the  usual 
speed  and  would  consequently  drop  from  the  two  units  320  apples  per 
minute  into  the  bins,  provided  every  cup  carried  an  apple,  but  it  is 
manifestly  impossible  for  the  sorters  to  keep  the  lines  running  full 
at  all  times.  Observations  made  showed  that  the  actual  delivery 
was  about  one-half  this  number.  This  depends  upon  the  quality  of 
the  apples  running  at  any  time  on  the  sorting  belt. 

The  regular  grades  packed  in  the  Northwest  are  extra  fancy, 
fancy,  and  C  grade.  As  the  machine  has  only  two  sizing  devices, 
one  grade  must  always  be  taken  off  or  run  to  the  bin,  which  is  shown 
at  oiie  end  of  the  belt.  In  some  houses  this  grade  was  taken  off  in 
boxes  and  in  others  it  ran  in  the  narrow  line  to  a  special  bin.  This 
fruit  was  either  sized  by  hand  or  later  run  over  the  machine  for 
sizing.  Figure  3  shows  a  convenient  placing  of  gravity  conveyors 
by  which  the  packed  fruit  is  all  brought  to  one  press.  The  floor 
space  with  the  clearance  indicated  is  23  feet  by  41  feet  6  inches. 

The  machine  shown  in  figure  4  has  a  different  arrangement  of  the 
parts.  The  fruit  all  moves  in  one  direction  from  the  feeder's  posi- 
tion to  the  fruit  bins.  It  handles  three  grades  of  fruit,  sizing  and 
delivering  each  grade  into  a  separate  set  of  bins.  For  instance,  the 
grades  on  the  two  outer  lines  are  placed  in  the  first  nine  bins  on  each 
side,  and  that  on  the  center  line  is  placed  in  the  last  four  bins  on 
each  side.  The  sizing  is  by  gravity,  but  is  accomplished  by  using 
a  counterpoise  so  placed  in  a  receptacle  that  it  permits  the  fruit  to 
trip  by  its  own  weight  and  drop  into  the  proper  bin.  In  each  of  the 
several  counterpoise  receptacles  is  placed  an  apple  selected  to  give 
the  size  desired  for  that  particular  bin.  These  can  be  changed  readily 
to  readjust  the  sizing  without  stopping  the  machine. 

The  fruit  passes  down  the  sorting  belt,  workmen  remove  the  culls, 
grade  the  fruit,  and  place  each  grade  in  its  proper  line.  From  the 
three  narrow  spaces  extending  down  the  center  of  the  belt  the  apples 
go  over  a  feeding  dev'ce  and  fall  directly  into  the  canvas  pockets  car- 
ried on  an  endless  web.  As  this  web  passes  along,  each  fruit  is 
dropped  into  the  proper  bin,  with  very  reasonable  accuracy.  The 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 


99438°— 17- 


10  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

web  at  usual  speed  makes  an  entire  revolution  in  approximately  17 
seconds,  and  would  deliver  360  apples  to  the  bins  per  minute  if  each 
cup  carried  an  apple.  However,  it  is  evident  that  in  practice  the 
lines  of  cups  can  not  run  full,  as  the  several  grades  will  always  vary 
in  amount  of  fruit,  dependent  upon  the  quality  of  the  crop.  Accord- 
ing to  a  number  of  observations  made,  the  sizing  web  carried  an  aver- 
age of  53.1  per  cent  of  its  capacity.  This  is  thought  to  be  a  fair 
statement  of  the  practical  results  obtained  under  good  conditions. 

The  floor  space  occupied  with  the  accessories  shown  (fig.  4)  and 
allowing  proper  clearance  is  16  feet  6  inches  by  43  feet  9  inches. 
The  delivery  of  the  packed  fruit  to  the  lidder's  press  by  the  gravity 
conveyors  is  very  convenient.  The  position  indicated  for  the  press 
requires  that  a  gravity  conveyor  run  the  nailed  boxes  to  the  point 
where  they  are  assembled. 

The  machine  show7n  in  figure  5  also  sizes  by  gravity,  but  is  con- 
structed on  an  entirely  different  principle  from  that  of  the  counter- 
poise machines.  The  apples  are  tossed  or  thrown  from  cups,  actu- 
ated by  a  cam  motion,  and  the  bin  into  which  they  fall  is  determined 
by  the  initial  velocity  and  the  weight  of  the  apple.  The  velocity 
or  force  of  the  throw  is  obtained  by  the  use  of  one  or  more  torsion 
springs  set  at  the  tension  desired.  The  proper  tension  is  determined 
by  the  use  of  trial  balls  before  the  machine  is  put  into  operation  on 
the  fruit.  The  machine  in  outline  closely  resembles  that  in  figure  4, 
and  the  fruit  moves  in  a  direct  line  to  the  completion  of  the  operation. 
The  springs  are  set  to  throw  one  grade  to  a  certain  number  of  bins 
and  the  next  grade  to  bins  beyond,  so  that  the  largest  f ruit  falls  where 
the  smallest  fruit  of  the  previous  grade  stops ;  thus  it  always  follows 
in  practice  that  some  overlapping  occurs,  but  as  this  is  at  the  extremes 
of  sizes,  only  slight  mixing  results. 

The  fruit  is  sorted  and  graded  on  an  endless  belt  as  is  done  with 
those  in  figures  3  and  4,  and  each  apple  is  put  into  the  proper  grade 
line  for  delivery  to  the  tossing  cups.  A  feeding  device  drops  the 
apples  into -the  cups  with  great  accuracy  and  the  operation  goes  on 
with  precision.  When  three  or  four  lines  are  running,  several 
fruits  may  be  in  the  air  at  the  same  instant.  The  apples  fall  into 
canvas  folds  or  divisions  held  in  place  by  springs,  to  lighten  the 
impact,  and  they  then  roll  into  the  bins.  Tests  of  the  sized  fruit 
showed  substantial  accuracy.  Timing  the  machine  in  operation 
showed  that  each  cup  made  90  throws  per  minute ;  thus  2  cups  could 
handle  180  apples,  and  4  cups  360  apples  per  minute;  but,  as  with 
the  other  machines  described,  the  lines  never  run  full.  About  50  per 
cent  of  actual  capacity  was  observed  in  practice.  With  the  'acces- 
sories thought  necessary,  including  clearances,  the  space  occupied, 
as  shown  in  figure  7}  is  17  feet  0  inches  by  41  feet. 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 


11 


m  /br-f 


Sorters'  po  s/fi 


L_ 


! 

I 


f! 
1  ! 

5    \ 
I    \ 

l! 

t>  \ 

*  i 

<8  \ 


12  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE   NORTHWEST. 

THE  SORTING  BELT. 

The  machine  shown  in  figure  6  is  a  sorting  belt  with  bins  along 
the  sides  and  at  one  end.  It  does  not  size  the  fruit,  but  carries  it 
in  front  of  the  sorters  to  be  graded  and  distributed  to  the  various 
bins.  Many  of  these  sorting  belts  were  observed,  and  while  no  two 
of  them  were  equipped  exactly  alike,  they  are  fundamentally  the 
same.  The  apparatus  consists  of  a  wooden  frame,  made  in  varying 
lengths  to  suit  the  needs  of,  the  user,  which  carries  an  endless  cloth 
belt,  power  driven  over  drums  at  each  end.  The  height  is  about  42 
inches  and  the  usual  width  is  26  inches  over  the  frame.  The  drums 
were  usually  about  15  inches  in  diameter  and  the  belt  about  22  inches 
wide.  This  belt  runs  on  a  smooth  surface  with  2-inch  side  strips  in 
its  upper  course  and  either  free  or  on  a  similar  surface  below.  The 
lower  section  of  the  belt  may  be  used  for  conveying  the  cull  fruit  to 
a  receptacle  at  the  head  of  the  frame.  A  short  feed  table  sloping  to 
the  belt  is  provided  at  the  head  of  the  machine.  The  principle  of 
moving  the  fruit  in  front  of  the  sorters  as  shown  in  this  apparatus 
is  used  in  all  the  sizing  machines  discussed  above.  As  developed  in 
some  of  the  houses,  it  is  an  excellent  device  for  convenience  of  sort- 
ing and  grading.  By  means  of  deflectors  the  graded  fruit  may  be 
placed  in  bins  with  certainty  and  with  only  slight  mechanical  in- 
juries. 

The  most  efficient  arrangement  of  the  sorting  belt  observed  is 
shown  in  figure  6  and  may  be  described  briefly  as  follows :  The  length 
of  the  belt  is  22  feet,  and  of  the  feed  table  3  feet.  The  bins  occupy 
a  space  3  feet  wide  on  each  side  of  the  framework,  and  a  like  dimen- 
sion across  the  lower  end,  thus  furnishing  very  large  bin  capacity. 
The  sorters'  positions  are  shown  at  the  head  of  the  belt  and  in  the 
three  V-shaped  spaces  cut  into  the  bins,  giving  actual  space  for  9 
sorters  if  needed.  This  number  would  be  necessary  only  with  very 
poor  fruit. 

Above  the  belt,  at  each  side,  and  supported  from  cross  rods  attached 
to  the  frame,  is  a  line  of  |-inch  gas  pipe,  which  is  adjustable  on  the 
support,  but  is  usually  placed  about  4  inches  from  the  margin  of 
the  belt,  so  as  to  give  a  narrow  line  on  each  side  in  which  graded 
fruit  is  placed  by  the  sorters.  The  belt  carries  the  graded  fruit  to 
the  bins.  In  the  side  strips  are  set,  at  the  proper  points,  hinged 
gates,  which  may  be  opened  inward  to  touch  the  pipe  lines,  and  thus 
deflect  the  moving  fruit  into  the  bins.  This  admits  of  convenient 
manipulations,  as  indicated  below.  The  first  sorters,  at  the  head  of 
the  belt  take  up  the  two  lightest  grades,  usually  the  Fancy  and  the 
C  grades,  and  place  them  in  the  side  lines,  and  the  deflectors  turn 
them  into  the  nearest  bins.  Ordinarily  these  grades  would  occupy 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN   THE    NORTHWEST. 


13 


14  APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES   IN    THE    NOETHWEST. 

two  bins  on  each  side  of  the  belt.  The  heaviest  grade,  usually  Extra 
Fancy,  is  not  picked  up,  but  is  allowed  to  pass  down  the  center  of 
the  belt  after  due  inspection  by  rolling  with  a  light  sweep  of  the 
hand.  The  culls  are  removed  and  dropped  down  a  small  chute 
attached  to  the  frame  of  the  machine  to  the  lower  Section  of  the 
belt  which  carries  them  to  the  head  of  the  frame,  where  they  are  dis- 
charged by  a  deflector  into  a  receptacle. 

When  the  fruit  is  running  heavily  to  one  grade  often  65  to  75 
per  cent  of  it  is  not  picked  up  by  the  sorters.  The  last  man  acts  as 
a  watcher  to  catch  any  errors  in  grade  as  the  fruit  passes  him.  If 
not  deflected  to  the  side  lines,  the  fruit  in  the  center  line  continues 
down  the  belt  and  is  discharged  into  the  bin  at  the  end  of  the  ma- 
chine. To  secure  convenient  distribution  to  the  side  bins  the  lines 
of  f-inch  pipe  over  the  lower  part  of  the  belt  can  be  disconnected 
readily,  and  a  deflector  can  be  used  to  turn  the  fruit  into  any  of  the 
bins  on  either  side  of  the  belt.  The  dotted  lines  across  the  side  bins 
below  the  last  sorters'  positions  represent  movable  divisions.  (See 
fig.  6. )  These  are  convenient  when  it  is  found  necessary  to  run  more 
than  one  grade  down  to  this  part  of  the  machine.  The  bins  slope 
away  from  the  belt  and  are  36  inches  high  at  the  outer  margin. 
They  are  lined  with  canvas  and  padded  at  the  lower  side  to  prevent 
bruising  the  fruit.  This  outfit,  with  all  accessories,  occupies  a  space 
21  feet  by  40  feet  6  inches.  (See  clearance  lines  for  type  D  in 
fig.  7.) 

CONVEYORS. 

The  fruit  should  be  conveyed  from  point  to  point  in  the  house  with 
the  least  possible  hand  work.  Roller-gravity  conveyors  were  used 
for  this  purpose  in  12  of  the  houses  visited,  and  they  effected  a  con- 
siderable saving  in  labor.  (See  fig.  8.)  In  some  of  these  houses  the 
fruit  traveled  on  gravity  conveyors  practically  the  entire  distance 
from  the  orchard  wagon  or  truck  at  the  receiving  door  on  one  side 
to  the  storeroom  or  car  on  the  other  side.  The  boxes  of  loose  fruit 
from  the  orchard  were  placed  directly  on  a  section  of  the  conveyor 
which  extended  through  the  receiving  door  to  the  load  and  were  car- 
ried by  gravity  to  the  stacking  space  on  the  floor  and  from  there  to 
the  feed  end  of  the  machine  as  needed.  In  like  manner  the  packed 
boxes  were  conveyed  from  the  packers  to  the  nailer  and  from  the 
latter  to  the  assembling  floor  or  storage  room.  Also,  in  one  instance 
at  least,  a  gravity  conveyor  was  used  to  run  the  fruit  from  the  storage 
room  into  the  cars.  The  conveyors  are  in  sections  and  may  be 
lengthened  or  shortened  as  desired,  and  curved  sections  are  used  to 
direct  the  fruit  in  any  desired  course.  Castor  rollers  may  be  used  on 
the  sections  to  render  them  more  readily  movable. 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST. 


15 


16 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES   IN    THE    NOETHWEST. 


SLIDES   AND    RACKS. 


In  nine  of  the  houses  without  gravity  conveyors  sloping  wooden 
slides  were  used  to  convey  the  fruit  short  distances,  particularly  from 
the  packer  to  the  nailer.  Some  of  the  houses  used  both  slides  and 
conveyors  in  order  to  obviate  the  expense  of  equipping  fully  with 
the  latter.  The  slides  are  inexpensive  and  are  very  convenient  for 
handling  the  packed  boxes  from  the  packer  to  the  nailer  and  from 
the  latter  to  the  assembler  or  trucker  near  by.  When  gravity  con- 
veyors are  not  used  the  slide  is  considered'  an  important  part  of  the 
equipment.  It  not  only  facilitates  the  handling  of  the  fruit,  but 
it  serves  as  a  table  to  receive  the  packed  boxes  from  the  packer  and 
dispenses  with  the  objectionable  practice  of  stacking  them  one  on 


FlG.  8. — A  packing  unit,  showing  a  sizing  machine,  gravity  conveyor,  and  overhead 
roller  track  for  empty  boxes. 

another  before  they  are  lidded.  In  some  of  the  houses  the  boxes  were 
stacked  from  three  to  four  high  and  trucked  to  the  lidding  press. 
This  practice  not  only  requires  more  hand  labor,  but  tends  to  injure 
the  fruit. 

To  supply  the  packers  with  empty  boxes  overhead  racks  were  used 
in  some  of  the  houses.  They  were  suspended  above  the  packing  bins 
or  over  the  sizing  machines.  (See  fig.  8.)  If  the  racks  are  fitted 
with  rollers  similar  to  those  of  a  gravity  conveyor,  the  boxes  may  be 
placed  on  one  end  and  are  easily  pushed  to  any  position  desired. 
Also  racks  for  paper  liners  and  wrappers  are  placed  in  convenient 
reach  of  the  packers.  Conveniences  of  this  kind  add  greatly  to  the 
efficiency  of  a  packing  force. 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE    NORTHWEST.  17 

PACKING-HOUSE  ORGANIZATION  AND  PERSONNEL. 

The  work  of  receiving  and  packing  fruit  in  the  Northwest  in- 
volves so  many  details  that  a  full  and  minute  consideration  of  them 
is  not  possible  in  this  preliminary  report.  However,  some  discussion 
of  the  subject  is  warranted  by  the  observations  made.  In  the  small 
houses  it  is  not  possible  definitely  to  fix  the  status  of  each  employee 
so  that  his  duties  are  differentiated  from  those  of  all  others.  There- 
fore, in  order  to  suggest  somewhat  definitely  the  force  necessary  to 
receive,  pack,  and  store  the  output  of  a  house,  the  unit  of  floor  shown 
in  figure  7,  the  capacity  of  which  is  30,000  to  50,000  boxes,  is  taken 
as  the  basis  of  the  discussion. 

There  is  at  present  a  considerable  diversity  in  house  organization 
and  in  some  cases  a  decided  loss  in  efficiency  through  lack  of  expe- 
rienced foremen.  These  are  defects  incident  to  any  business  which 
grows  to  large  proportions  quickly.  The  suggestions  offered  here 
are  a  composite  of  the  best  details  observed  and  may  have  value  in 
remedying  some  of  the  defects. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  a  unit,  packing  30,000  to  50,000 
boxes,  should  have  a  general  manager  who  is  the  business  head,  both 
in  the  packing  house  and  the  office,  but  who  does  not  personally  han- 
dle the  details  of  the  packing  operations.  The  receiving  clerk  and 
the  checker  who  records  the  packed  fruit  as  it  goes  to  the  storeroom 
are,  or  should  be,  a  part  of  the  office  force.  While  a  disposition  to 
be  mutually  helpful  must  be  maintained  between  all  employees  on 
the  packing-house  floor,  these  clerks  should  report  only  to  the  office. 
Discrepancies  and  mistakes  will  surely  occur  and  should  be  promptly 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  business  head  of  the  house. 

The  foreman  of  the  packing  house  is,  or  should  be,  the  chief  as- 
sistant of  the  manager.  Upon  him  rests  the  direct  responsibility  for 
the  successful  operation  and  control  of  the  labor.  He  must  be  a  man 
of  many  qualifications,  with  sufficient  mechanical  skill  to  handle  the 
machines,  tact  and  ability  to  control  the  help,  and  orderly^  habits  to 
prevent  confusion  and  waste  of  effort,  and  he  should  be  an  expert 
grader  and  packer.  This  man  may  be  an  employee  or  a  contract 
foreman,  but  the  requirements  are  the  same  in  either  case.  All  the 
employees,  except  the  receiving  clerk  and  the  checker,  should  be  re- 
sponsible solely  to  him. 

Instances  were  observed  Avhere  there  was  no  real  foreman  but  sev- 
eral petty  bosses,  and  others  where  the  foreman  was  the  checker  at 
the  receiving  doors  or  had  other  duties,  and  these  conditions  tended 
to  confusion  and  loss  of  efficiency.  In  still  other  instances  the 
foreman  acted  as  inspector  under  the  fltate  grade  law.  This  appeared 
to  be  objectionable;  for  the  reason  that  it  is  not  a  correct  principle  to 


18  APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES   IN    THE    NORTHWEST. 

permit  him  to  be  the  legal  agent  to  pass  upon  his  own  acts.  Cer- 
tainly the  foreman  is  always  in  one  sense  an  inspector,  because  he 
controls  every  operation  of  the  packing  floor,  but  when  he  also  acts 
as  the  agent  of  the  law  it  appears  to  unite  quite  incompatible  func- 
tions and  is  inimical  to  good  order  and  harmony.  The  inspector 
should  never  have  any  business  relations  with  the  work  upon  which 
he  passes. 

The  working  force  of  the  packing  floor  consists  mostly  of  help 
that  requires  no  special  training.  Certainly  it  is  well  to  employ 
persons  who  have  worked  in  a  packing  house  before,  but  the  lack  of 
experience  is  not  a  bar  to  their  usefulness.  A  competent  foreman 
will  very  soon  break  them  in.  This  does  not  apply  to  the  packers 
and  lidders.  Under  the*old  usages  of  hand  sizing  a  packer  could 
not  do  good,  rapid  work  until  he  had  had  much  experience. 
The  expert  hand  sizers  and  packers  were  usually  persons  who  fol- 
lowed packing  the  year  round  and  migrated  up  and  down  the  coast 
States  as  the  various  crops  offered  a  chance  for  their  special  work. 
They  were  rarely  local  residents.  It  is  also  true  that  the  lidder 
needs  a  large  amount  of  practice  to  become  a  rapid  workman.  The 
expert  lidders  were  also  migrants  who  followed  and  worked  with 
the  expert  packers.  Both  of  these  expert  types  are  a  development 
of  the  old  methods,  now  giving  way  to  the  changes  in  methods  inci- 
dent to  the  greatly  increased  production. 

The  training  of  packers  on  machine-sized  fruit  has  now  become  a 
comparatively  simple  matter.  A  competent  foreman  can  assemble 
his  crew  and  run  practice  work  for  a  couple  of  weeks  before  the 
harvest  opens,  and  is  thus  enabled  to  select  packers  who  do  the 
work  well.  Many  persons,  men  and  women,  who  had  had  no  pre- 
vious experience  were  found  to  be  packing  acceptably.  It  follows 
as  a  matter  of  course  that  these  local  people  will  become  more  expert 
from  year  to  year.  The  lidder  can  not  be  trained  so  easily,  but  box- 
making  offers  an  excellent  opportunity  to  train  men  for  this  work, 
as  it  begins  weeks  in  advance  of  the  harvest.  The  conditions  ob- 
served in  the  Northwest  render  the  training  of  local  help  one  of 
the  most  vital  questions. 

The  number  of  persons  needed  for  a  crew  is  determined  partly 
by  the  amount  of  fruit  to  be  packed  and  partly  by  the  equipment 
used.  For  a  unit  with  one  sizing  machine  running  on  average  fruit, 
the  force  should  consist  of  a  foreman,  a  receiving  clerk,  one  man  to 
deliver  the  fruit  to  the  machine  and  to  remove  boxes  and  culls,  one 
man  to  feed  or  pour  the  apples,  four  or  five  sorters,  six  packers  (local 
trained),  one  man  to  wait  on  Backers,  one  lidder,  one  checker,  and 
one  assembler  who  may  also  do  some  trucking.  Additional  labor 
must  be  provided  for  labeling  and  car  loading.  This  force  should 
average  750  boxes  of  packed  fruit  per  day.  If,  as  is  suggested  under 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE    NORTHWEST.  19 

the  discussion  of  the  house  layout,  a  second  sizing  machine  he  added, 
only  the  machine  force  would  have  to  be  duplicated,  and  the  output 
of  the  house  could  be  doubled. 

If  the  sorting  belt,  shown  in  figure  6,  is  used  instead  of  sizing  ma- 
chines, the  force  for  one  unit  would  be  increased  by  about  four  pack- 
ers, the  other  help  remaining  practically  the  same.  It  was  found 
that  the  local  packers  working  on  unsized  fruit  rarely  packed  more 
than  75  boxes  per  day,  while  the  itinerant  experts  packed  100  to 
125  boxes. 

Where  the  small,  individual  sorting  tables  were  used,  one  sorter 
was  usually  required  to  each  packer.  The  serving  of  fruit  to  all  these 
individual  tables  and  the  removing  of  boxes  and  culls  added  to  the 
labor.  This  arrangement  makes  each  pair  of  sorters  and  packers  in 
effect  a  unit  by  itself,  and  while  it  facilitates  the  working  up  of  small 
lots,  it  does  not  yield  readily  to  correct  principles, of  organizing  a 
large  force.  In  one  house  of  this  kind  12  sorters  served  20  packers, 
but  the  daily  output  averaged  only  1,300  boxes,  while  in  another 
house,  with  23  sorters  and  the  same  number  of  packers,  the  average 
was  2,100  boxes.  The  condition  of  the  fruit  and  the  speed  of  the 
packers  will  affect  the  number  of  sorters  required. 

A  SUGGESTED  FLOOR  UNIT. 

The  apparent  tendency  is  toward  community  packing  houses,  but 
there  will  remain  always  the  ranch  packing  house,  whore  individ- 
uals, who  prefer  to  do  so,  will  pack  their  own  fruit.  Even  though 
they  may  be  mere  temporary  structures  or  tents,  the  principles  in- 
volved as  to  correct  dimensions  and  the  conveniences  necessary  to 
secure  the  orderly  progress  of  the  fruit  through  the  house  are  essen- 
tially the  same  as  for  larger  and  more  permanent  structures.  It  is 
not  the  purpose  of  this  report  to  give  details  of  exact  size,  dimensions, 
and  equipment  for  packing  houses,  but  rather  to  discuss  certain  ideas 
which  have  a  strong  bearing  upon  the  convenience  of  arrangement 
and  the  economical  handling  of  the  fruit. 

Location  of  building. — The  first  consideration  is  the  placing  of 
the  building.  For  a  grower's  house,  the  location  is  at  the  ranch 
regardless  of  shipping  facilities.  Even  here  it  is  important  that 
convenient  access  for  delivering  the  loose  fruit  and  removing  the 
packed  fruit  be  provided.  For  instance,  the  boxes  of  loose  fruit 
should  enter  at  one  end  or  side  and  the  packed  boxes  should  be 
loaded  out  at  the  other,  and  the  floor  of  the  house  should  be  high 
enough  to  permit  of  convenient  loading  and  unloading.  If  the 
floor  is  below  the  bed  of  the  vehicle,  a  bench  across  the  door  at  the 
proper  height  to  receive  the  boxes  is  a  convenience  in  those  houses 
where  gravity  conveyors  are  not  used. 


20  APPLE-PACKKSTG   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

For  the  community  packing  house  or  the  commercial  operator, 
the  location  should  be  at  a  railroad  siding.  Only  some  very  unusual 
obstacle  should  prevent  the  selection  of  such  a  location.  Where  the 
distance  is  not  too  great,  probably  no  advantage  in  locating  the 
packing  house  off  the  railroad  would  compensate  for  the  cost  and 
inconvenience  of  the  extra  loading  and  unloading  involved  in  haul- 
ing the  loose  fruit  to  the  packing  house  and  the  packed  fruit  to  the 
railroad.  To  a  house  located  at  Pateros,  Wash.,  some  of  the  fruit 
was  being  hauled  30  miles  apparently  without  serious  difficulty.  It 
was  observed,  howeATer,  that  some  of  the  apples  hauled  long  distances 
showed  a  browning  of  the  skin  in  spots,  due  to  rubbing  against  the 
sides  of  the  boxes.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  Yellow  Newtown 
variety.  A  5-month  cold-storage  test  on  22  boxes  of  apples  hauled 
12  miles  showed  that  the  fruit  packed  in  the  orchard  before  hauling 
kept  slightly  better  and  had  a  somewhat  better  appearance  than  that 
which  was  hauled  loose  in  boxes  and  packed  at  the  railroad.  Con- 
clusions should  not  be  drawn  from  so  small  a  test,  but  sufficient  evi- 
dence was  found  to  indicate  that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  distance  which 
apples  can  be  hauled  with  safety  before  packing.  Lining  the  or- 
chard boxes  with  paper  would  tend  to  prevent  injury. 

The  lay  of  the  ground  is  important  for  convenience  in  receiving 
and  loading  out  the  fruit.  The  ideal  location  is  on  a  slope  which  runs 
down  to  the  railway  tracks  at  such  an  angle  as  to  permit  of  construct- 
ing the  packing  floor  at  the  wagon-road  level  on  the  upper  side,  and 
the  floor  of  a  basement  story,  for  storage,  on  a  level  with  the  car- 
loading  platform  and  continuous  with  it.  Examples  of  this  arrange- 
ment of  floors  were  observed  at  Wenatchee,  Okanogan,  and  Hood 
River,  but  many  houses  have  been  built  without  regard  to  these  de- 
tails. By  locating  on  such  a  site  the  fruit  may  be  moved  from  the 
receiving  platform  through  the  packing  house  into  the  storeroom, 
and  from  there  into  the  cars  entirely  by  gravity  conveyors.  The 
packing  floor  should  be  a  part  of  the  receiving  floor.  In  some  very 
important  houses  the  fruit  was  elevated  to  a  second  and  even  a 
third  story  to  reach  the  packing  floor.  The  consideration  that  less 
land  is  required  to  furnish  the  floor  space  when  several  stories  are 
used  has  little  significance  compared  to  the  loss  of  effort  and  the 
inconvenience  suffered. 

Protection  of  the  fruit,— The  choice  of  material  used  will  be  gov- 
erned, necessarily,  by  the  character  of  the  house  and  the  money  out- 
lay decided  upon.  For  the  receiving  and  packing  room  it  is  not  usually 
necessary  to  provide  protection  against  serious  drops  in  tempera- 
ture. Yet  a  cold  spell  early  in  November  of  1916  caught  much  fruit 
unpacked  and  caused  considerable  damage.  Therefore,  the  ordinary 
packing  room  should  at  least  be  so  well  constructed  that  it  can  be 
closed  tightly.  In  a  tight  room  with  no  access  of  air  slight  freezing 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST.  21 

temperatures  may  not  hurt  the  fruit  materially,  especially  if  it  is 
not  handled  until  the  temperature  has  risen.  In  the  large  receiving 
rooms,  where  there  may  be  at  times  10,000  or  more  boxes  of  loose 
fruit  without  protection  against  freezing,  a  simple  hot-water  heater 
with  straight  runs  of  pipes  along  the  walls  could  be  made  to  give 
ample  protection  and  the  installation  of  the  heater  would  be  much 
less  expensive  than  insulating  the  walls.  It  is  also  important  to  keep 
the  fruit  cool  so  as  to  arrest  the  ripening  processes  and  prevent 
deterioration. 

It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  provide  against  freezing  where  fruit 
is  to  be  held  into  the  winter;  therefore  a  frost-proof  storeroom 
should  be  provided  for  all  houses  which  handle  more  fruit  than 
can  be  promptly  loaded  out  and  sent  to  market.  As  a  primary 
statement  it  may  safely  be  said  that  the  best  manner  of  insuring 
a  storeroom  against  low  temperatures  is  the  use  of  cork  insulation 
on  the  entire  surface  of  the  room.  It  is  well  known  that  good 
wood  or  brick  construction  can  be  insulated  just  as  effectively  as 
hollow-tile  or  concrete  construction;  that  is,  given  a  good  wall  con- 
struction, the  nature  of  the  material  is  not  of  vital  importance  and 
should  be  determined  by  local  conditions.  The  most  convenient  plan 
is  to  build  the  storeroom  beneath  the  packing  room,  but  if  condi- 
tions render  this  impracticable  it  should  be  placed  between  the 
packing  room  and  the  railroad  track.  These  rooms  should  be  a 
part  of  the  same  structure,  with  only  a  dividing  wall,  furnished 
with  convenient  doors  for  the  transfer  of  the  packed  fruit.  The 
floor  should  be  on  a  level  with  the  car-loading  platform  and  fur- 
nished with  doors  at  convenient  intervals  for  placing  cars.  If  this 
room  is  to  be  artificially  refrigerated  all  the  doors  should  be  of 
special  construction,  such  as  are  used  in  cold-storage  houses,  and  it 
is  better  to  provide  artificial  light  and  have  the  walls  without 
windows. 

Lighting  the  packing  -floor. — Top  lighting  can  be  secured  readily 
by  constructing  the  regular  saw-tooth  roof  commonly  used  on  ma- 
chine shops,  or  a  penthouse  story  over  the  center  of  the  span.  If 
the  penthouse  story  is  roofed  with  skylight  glass,  and  the  inside 
walls  finished  smooth  and  painted  white,  very  good  light  can  be  ob- 
tained, but  the  saw-tooth  system  is  preferable  where  extremely 
heavy  snows  do  not  make  it  impracticable.  Windows  in  the  walls 
of  the  building  where  the  space  is  occupied  by  the  stacks  of  loose 
fruit  should  be  above  the  height  to  which  the  boxes  are  piled.  By 
placing  the  operating  space  at  one  end  and  one  side  of  the  build- 
ing, floor  space  is  economized,  and  ample  lighting  is  secured  through 
large  windows  in  the  side  and  end  walls.  (See  fig.  7.)  For  use 
at  nights  and  on  cloudy  days  electric  lighting  shoukl  be  provided. 
It  is  especially  important  to  have  the  sorting  table  well  lighted. 


22  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

This  may  be  accomplished  by  suspending  above  the  table  a  long 
reflector  in  the  shape  of  an  inverted  "trough  fitted  with  electric- 
light  bulbs. 

The  floor  space. — The  arrangement  of  the  packing-floor  space  of 
the  house  is  of  vital  importance.  The  fundamental  principle  in- 
volved is  that  the  fruit  should  proceed  by  regular  stages  from  the 
point  where  it  is  received  through  the  packing  operations  and  then 
to  the  storeroom  or  to  the  car  with  the  least  possible  trucking  or 
handling,  and  certainly  without  reversing  its  course  or  crossing  the 
floor  through  the  operating  space.  To  secure  economical  use  of  the 
floor  space  the  roof  of  the  house  should  be  carried  upon  trusses  of 
not  less  than  50-foot  span,  thus  giving  a  large,  clear  floor  space. 

In  figure  7  is  submitted  a  sketch  showing  a  floor  unit,  50  by  100 
feet,  with  a  suggested  arrangement  for  the  operations.  On  this 
sketch  the  operating  floor  is  located  adjacent  to  large  windows.  This 
floor  space  with  one  efficient  sizing  machine  is  sufficient  to  handle 
30,000  boxes  of  packed  fruit  during  the  season,  and  with  two  ma- 
chines the  output  of  the  house  can  be  doubled.  While  this  floor  plan 
has  been  designed  for  the  installation  of  either  sizing  machines  or 
sorting  belts,  it  can  be  used  with  equal  facility  for  table  work  with- 
out any  power  devices  whatever.  It  is  apparent  that  the  large  space 
adjacent  to  the  machine  position,  if  not  used  for  fruit  storage,  may 
be  used  for  the  installation  of  an  additional  machine  or  other  ap- 
paratus for  packing.  Any  properly  constructed  house  where  as  much 
as  30,000  boxes  of  packed  apples  are  to  be  handled  should  be  pro- 
vided with  storage  space  for  packed  fruit  in  a  separate  room. 

The  mechanical  equipment  of  a  packing  house  does  not  involve 
intricate  problems.  It  is,  in  fact,  comparatively  simple.  Yet  the 
proper  placing  of  tables  for  handwork,  or  of  sizing  machines,  in 
connection  with  their  necessary  accessories  is  vital  to  the  orderly 
progress,  speed,  and  efficiency  of  the  work.  Therefore,  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  floor  unit,  the  location  of  the  loose-fruit  storage  space,  and 
the  lines  >of  movement  for  the  fruit  before  and  after  packing,  are 
details  which  require  consideration.  The  proposed  dimensions  given 
in  figure  7  have  a  certain  relation  to  the  conditions  observed.  For 
instance,  a  house  packing  about  30,000  boxes  has  an  accumulation  of 
from  4,000  to  6,000  boxes  of  loose  fruit  during  the  height  of  the 
season.  During  the  investigations  it  was  found  that  houses  packing 
50,000  or  more  boxes  would  often  have  6,000  to  8,000  boxes  of  loose 
fruit  on  hand,  and  in  very  large  houses  there  was  at  times  an  ac- 
cumulation of  20,000  boxes  or  more  of  loose  fruit.  In  some  instances 
the  houses  and  the  receiving  platforms  were  filled  to  capacity  and 
fruit  was  stacked  on  the  ground  outside  of  the  buildings  or  in  tents 
which  afforded  but  little  protection  from  frost  or  from  high  tern- 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST.  23 

peratures.  Also  much  picked  fruit  stood  in  the  orchards  for  days 
waiting  for  the  congestion  at  the  packing  house  to  be  relieved. 
Hence,  the  lack  of  provision  for  adequate  storage  and  protection  for 
the  unpacked  fruit  is  one  of  the  points  most  open  to  criticism.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  large  accumulation  of  unpacked  fruit  should  be 
avoided  as  much  as  possible,  unless  it  can  be  kept  at  a  tempera- 
ture that  will  prevent  undue  ripening.  When  allowed  to  become 
overripe  for  shipment  it  can  not  be  expected  to  arrive  in  the  market 
in  good  condition  and  is  certainly  not  suitable  for  long-period  stor- 
age. When  practicable,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  leave  the  fruit  which  is 
picked  during  the  afternoon  in  the  orchard  over  one  night,  and  to 
haul  it  early  the  next  morning,  thus  delivering  it  to  the  packing- 
house floor  in  a  cool  condition.  Too  much  emphasis  can  not  be 
placed  on  the  importance  of  keeping  the  fruit  cool  from  the  time  it 
is  picked  until  it  reaches  the  market. 

In  the  floor  unit  proposed  in  figure  7  the  receiving  platform  is 
10  feet  wide  and  50  feet  long  under  roof,  which  gives  ample  space  for 
unloading  and  even  for  holding  fruit  temporarily  until  it  can  be 
put  inside.  In  some  cases  the  platforms  observed  were  not  covered' 
and  were  stacked  full  of  fruit,  which  stood  for  days  in  the  open 
weather.  With  a  projection  roof  over  the  platform  and  a  drop  cur- 
tain of  duck,  it  becomes  a  closed  space  quite  well  sheltered  from  ordi- 
nary inclement  weather  and  is  much  superior  to  a  tent. 

In  designing  the  floor  space  consideration  has  been  given  to  the 
importance  of  allowing  as  little  waste  space  as  is  compatible  with 
free  access  to  the  stacks  of  fruit,  hence  the  receiving  doors  are  but 
4  feet  wide,  corresponding  with  the  alleys  which  extend  through  to 
the  operating  floor.  The  sketch  shows  gravity  conveyors  in  each 
aisle.  As  these  are  mounted  on  supports  fitted  with  castors,  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  run  them  out  to  the  vehicles  and  deliver  the  fruit  to 
practically  any  point  on  the  aisle  desired.  With  such  an  arrange- 
ment one  man  less  is  needed  to  place  the  fruit  in  the  stacks  and  the 
speed  is  accelerated.  The  conveyor  which  extends  from  the  receiving 
door  to  a  point  near  the  feeder's  position  at  the  sorting  tables  may 
be  disjointed  at  any  point  in  the  aisle  so  that  the  sections  at  the 
receiving  door  may  be  run  forward  to  the  vehicles  and  also  set  at 
an  angle  to  deliver  into  the  stack  space  without  moving  the  entire 
track.  When  delivering  fruit  to  the  operating  space,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  bring  the  free  ends  into  Contact  to  have  a  continuous  track. 
With  some  ingenuity  in  arranging  this  device,  there  need  be  very 
little  trucking. 

It  is  important  to  have  long  stack  fronts  as  indicated  in  the  plan. 
With  this  arrangement,  varieties  and  crops  may  be  segregated,  and. 
at  the  same  time,  they  are  easy  of  access  when  the  fruit  is  wanted. 
This  stack  space  will  accommodate  approximately  5.760  boxes.  The 


24  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

space  adjacent  to  the  machine  position  is  indicated  as  storage  for 
3,024  boxes.  This  could  be  used  temporarily  for  packed  fruit  where 
other  storage  is  not  provided,  or  for  boxes  of  loose  fruit,  or  it  may 
be  used  for  additional  packing  equipment.  It  is  contemplated  that 
basement  or  other  storage  space  for  packed  fruit  will  be  provided. 

Provision  is  indicated  on  the  plan  for  a  gravity  conveyor  to  remove 
the  packed  fruit  to  the  storeroom  or  to  cars  as  desired.  By  the  use 
of  90-degree  curves  the  boxes  can  be  delivered  direct  into  the  cars  at 
any  position  along  the  platform.  The  car  platform  shown  in  the 
plan  is  10  feet  wide  and  should  always  be  under  roof,  as  it  offers 
convenient  space  for  the  temporary  storage  of  one  or  more  carloads 
of  fruit.  "The  extension  of  this  roofed  platform  beyond  the  building 
lines  adds  to  the  facilities  for  handling  incoming  and  outgoing 
freight.  This  necessarily  presumes  that  additional  track  frontage 
for  such  an  extension  is  available. 

SOME  OF  THE  DETAILS  OF  OPERATION. 

Hauling  the  loose  fruit. — Most  of  the  hauling  is  done  by  the 
growers,  but  in  some  localities  community  hauling  is  practiced.  In 
such  cases  the  management  of  the  house  usually  lets  the  contract  for 
the  hauling  and  charges  the  grower  with  the  exact  cost.  Both  wagons 
and  motor  trucks  are  employed  for  this  purpose.  With  few  excep- 
tions, neither  the  wagons  nor  the  trucks  were  fitted  with  special 
bodies  or  racks  for  hauling  apples  and  this  detail  apparently  has  not 
received  the  attention  it  deserves.  The  best  arrangement  observed 
was  the  slatted-stake  body,  with  sides  in  sections,  which  may  be  re- 
moved easily  for  convenience  in  loading  and  unloading.  The  dimen- 
sions were  such  as  to  permit  a  low,  compact  load  of  maximum  weight. 

Receiving  and  checking. — In  most  of  the  houses  the  fruit  is  un- 
loaded on  the  receiving  platform,  stacked  five  boxes  high,  checked 
by  the  receiving  clerk,  and  trucked  to  the  loose-fruit  storage  space 
in  the  building.  Where  gravity  conveyors  are  used  in  conjunction 
with  vehicle  bodies  that  have  removable  sides,  the  driver  places  the 
boxes  on  the  .end  of  the  conveyor,  which  delivers  them  to  any  desired 
point  in  the  house.  This  obviates  a  large  part  of  the  trucking  and 
facilitates  the  unloading.  The  records  made  by  the  receiving  clerk 
consist  of  the  date,  the  grower's  name,  the  variety  of  apples,  the 
number  of  boxes,  and  the  name  of  the  driver,  who  is  given  a  duplicate 
of  the  receiving  slip.  The  fruit  'goes  into  the  stacks  with  a  card 
attached  giving  the  necessary  data  for  identification  and  it  retains 
its  identity  until  it  is  nailed  up  and  checked.  As  the  boxes  pass 
from  the  nailing  press  to  the  assembling  floor  or  the  storeroom  the 
checker  records  in  connection  wtih  the  grower's  name  the  grade 
and  size  of  the  fruit  in  each  box.  The  fruit  then  goes  into  the  house 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN   THE    NORTHWEST. 


25 


pools  and  loses  its  identity.  This  applies  more  particularly  to  com- 
munity houses  operated  on  the  cooperative  plan.  In  houses  which 
pack  for  a  community  of  growers  under  individual  contract  each 
grower's  fruit  must  retain  its  identity  in  the  storerooms,  as  pools 
are  not  handled  by  contract  houses, 

A  notable  exception  to  this  system  was  observed  in  the  house  of 
the  Entiat  Growers'  League  at  Entiat,  Wash.  Here  was  followed 
a  system  of  sampling  by  weight  and  determining  from  the  sample 
the  grade  and  size  credits  to  which  the  grower  was  entitled.  The 
loads  of  fruit  from  the  orchards  were  weighed  at  the  receiving  door 
and  both  the  gross  and  net  weights  recorded  in  addition  to  the  usual 
data.  As  the  fruit  was  being  unloaded  a  sample  sufficient  to  make  5 
per  cent  of  the  net  weight  of  the  load  was  taken.  The  remainder  of 
the  load  went  into  the  loose-fruit  storage  space  with  other  fruit  of 
the  same  variety  regardless  of  ownership.  In  a  space  set  aside  for 
the  purpose  near  the  door  the  sample  was  graded  and  sized  by  an 
experienced  man,  and  the  weight  of  the  fruit  in  each  group  of  sizes 
in  each  grade  was  used  as  the  basis  for  determining  the  credits  due 
the  grower.  After  having  served  its  purpose,  the  sample  went  into 
the  stacks  to  be  graded,  sized,  and  packed  with  other  fruit.  The 
results  of  the  test  were  recorded  on  the  following  form : 


No.      * 
Grower. . . 


SAMPLE  TEST. 

THE  ENTIAT  FRUIT  GROWERS  LEAGUE. 

Entiat,  Wash ,191. 


Variety . 


Loose 

Fruit 

Receipt 

No. 


FRUIT 


No.  of 

Picking 

Boxes 


Weight 
Boxes  Inc. 


Weight 
of  Boxes 


Net 
Weight 


SAMPLE 


Per  cent. 


No.  of  Gross  Weight  of    !          Net 

Boxes      !      Weight  Boxes  Weight 


THE  ENTIAT  FRUIT  GROWERS  LEAGUE. 


Test  Clerk. 


Grades 


Extra 
Fancy 


Fancy 


•C" 


Export 


Calls 


Total 


Sizes 


36-125 


138-175 


36-125 


138-200 


36-163 


175-225 


150-200 


216-250 


Weight 


By  this  method  the  fruit  goes  at  once  into  the  house  pool  and  the 
work  of  keeping  individual  crop  records  during  the  packing  opera- 
tions is  eliminated.  Any  variety  may  be  fed  to  the  machines  con- 


26  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE   NORTHWEST. 

tinuously  until  the  supply  in  the  house  is  exhausted,  thus  avoiding 
the  loss  of  time  involved  in  clearing  the  bins  after  each  small  lot  is 
run,  as  must  be  done  under  the  other  method. 

Handling  the  culls  and  empty  boxes. — The  efficient  handling  of 
the  culls,  or  unmerchantable  fruit,  is  ^>ne>  of  the  unsolved  problems 
in  most  of  the  houses  visited;  in  fact,  only  one  of  these  houses  had 
a  really  convenient  arrangement  for  delivering  the  culls  at  once  to 
a  point  outside  the  packing  room  where  they  could  be  disposed  of 
without  interfering  with  the  regular  operations  of  the  packing  force. 
In  many  instances  the  culls  were  placed  in  fruit  boxes  at  the  sorters' 
benches,  and  from  there  trucked  across  the  packing  floor  and  even 
through  the  congested  operating  space  to  the  point  of  final  disposal. 
This  practice  is  certainly  faulty.  Devices  should  be  arranged  where- 
by the  sorter  may  drop  the  cull  fruit  into  a  chute  leading  to  a  con- 
veyor which  would  deliver  it  to  bins  or  other  receptacles  without 
further  attention  from  the  workmen  on  the  packing  floor.  Where 
two  or  more  machines  are  operated,  or  where  long  lines  of  sorting 
tables  are  used,  a  cross  conveyor  beneath  the  floor  could  be  arranged 
to  catch  and  handle  all  the  culls  readily.  There  appeared  to  be  more 
needless  waste  of  effort  in  handling  the  cull  fruit  than  in  any  other 
one  operation  in  the  packing  house. 

Much  confusion  and  loss  of  effort  was  observed  in  the  disposal  or 
removal  of  boxes  emptied  by  the  feeders  in  serving  the  fruit  to  the 
sorters.  This  operation  is  generally  associated  with  the  supplying 
of  boxes  to  the  packers.  With  few  exceptions,  the  loose  fruit  ^rom 
the  orchards  is  delivered  to  the  house  in  clean,  sound  boxes  to  be 
used  for  packing.  It  is  estimated  that  about  70  per  cent  of  the  boxes 
containing  loose  fruit  will  be  needed  to  hold  the  packed  fruit.  Hence, 
a  certain  percentage  of  old  or  inferior  boxes  may  be  kept  in  constant 
use,  but  each  load  delivered  must  contain  the  required  number  of 
bright,  sound  boxes  for  packing  the  fruit.  The  workman  who 
empties  the  fruit  on  the  sorting  tables  selects  the  boxes  suitable  for 
the  packers  and  starts  them  on  their  course,  while  those  unfit  for  this 
purpose  are  sent  out  to  the  orchard  again.  In  most  cases  they  are 
piled  on  the  floor  at  the  sorters'  tables  and  then  trucked  to  the 
packers'  stands  or  to  the  point  where  they  are  to  be  loaded  for  re- 
turning to  the  orchards. 

In  a  few  instances,  where  the  best  modern  mechanical  appliances 
are  installed,  overhead  conveyors  for  carrying  the  boxes  to  the  pack- 
ers were  used  and  this  appears  to  offer  the  best  solution  to  this  detail. 
(See  fig.  8.)  The  workman  who  empties  the  fruit  sorts  the  boxes  and 
puts  those  desired  for  the  packed  fruit  on  the  conveyor,  which  runs 
at  the  proper  height  immediately  above  the  packers'  bins.  This  puts 
them  out  of  the  way  of  the  floor  operations  and  in  convenient  reach 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES   IN    THE    NORTHWEST. 


27 


of  the  packers.  In  none  of  the  houses,  however,  was  there  a  well- 
devised  plan  for  delivering  the  remaining  empty  boxes  to  a  con- 
venient point  for  sending  out  again  to  the  orchards.  In  the  further 
development  of  the  overhead-conveyor  idea,  it  appears  that  this  de- 
vice might  be  extended  beyond  the  bins  so  that  the  boxes  to  be  re- 
turned to  the  orchards  could  be  delivered  at  some  convenient  point  for 
loading.  If  this  were  done,  the  workman  who  places  the  boxes  on  the 
conveyor  would  sort  them  as  before,  and  place  the  new  boxes  in- 
tended for  the  packers  in  an  upright  position,  and  the  others  on  the 
side,  so  that  the  workmen  could  distinguish  them  easily. 

Loading  and  bracing. — A  carload  of  apples  shipped   from   the 
Northwest  commonly  consists  of  630  boxes,  placed  seven  wide  across 


FIG.  9. — Frame  in  position  for  bracing  a  carload  of  apples. 

the  car  and  nine  end  to  end  lengthwise  of  the  car  on  each  side  of  the 
door  space,  and  five  high.  The  boxes  are  placed  side  down  in  ver- 
tical stacks  and  are  equally  spaced  across  the  car.  (See  fig.  9.)  In 
some  instances,  however,  the  boxes  in  the  second  and  succeeding  lay- 
ers were  placed  over  the  spaces  between  the  boxes  in  the  next  layer  be- 
low. Under  this  method  the  circulation  of  air  is  obstructed  and  if 
the  cars  are  handled  roughly  in  transit  some  of  the  boxes  are  likely 
to  drop  down  from  one  layer  into  the  spaces  of  the  next.  This  con- 
dition has  been  observed  in  cars  inspected  at  destination. 

Lath  strips  are  nailed  across  the  ends  of  the  boxes  in  the  third  and 
top  layers  and  also  are  sometimes  placed  on  the  floor  of  the  car  under 
the  boxes  without  nailing.  If  the  nailing  of  these  laths  is  carelessly 
done,  so  that  the  nails  fail  to  catch  in  the  end  piece  of  the  box,  a 


28  APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN    THE   NORTHWEST. 

shifting  of  the  top  layer  and  a  consequent  injury  to  the  fruit  is  likely 
to  occur. 

Loading  as  described  above  leaves  the  space  across  the  car  between 
the  doors  vacant  to  be  occupied  by  bracing  timbers.  The  most  ap- 
proved style  of  bracing  observed  was  as  follows :  Frames  or  "  gates  " 
are  made  with  three  2  by  4  inch  crosspieces  8  feet  long  and  seven  2 
by  4  or  1  by  6  inch  upright  pieces  spaced  to  meet  the  ends  of  the 
boxes.  (See  fig.  9.)  One  of  these  frames  is  placed  against  the  ends 
of  the  boxes  on  each  side  of  the  door,  the  2  by  4  inch  pieces  running 
across  the  car  and  the  seven  upright  pieces  fitting  against  and  in 
line  with  the  seven  rows  of  boxes.  They  are  held  in  place  by  twelve 
2  by  4  inch  cross  braces,  placed  four  in  a  row  immediately  above 
each  crosspiece  in  the  frame.  The  braces  are  cut  somewhat  longer 
than  the  distance  between  the  frames  and  are  driven  into  place  in 
order  to  take  up  the  slack  between  the  ends  of  the  boxes. 

This  method  of  bracing  was  not  followed  in  detail  by  all  shippers, 
but  it  was  generally  considered  £o  be  the  most  satisfactory.  In  some 
instances  only  four  upright  pieces  in  the  frames  and  a  correspond- 
ingly smaller  number  of  brace  pieces  were  used.  This  did  not 
appear  to  be  sufficient  to  render  the  load  entirely  secure  when  the 
cars  were  roughly  handled  in  switching. 

THE  OPERATIONS  IN  TWO  TYPICAL  HOUSES. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  a  detailed  description  of  the  work 
as  observed  in  progress  in  all  or  in  any  large  number  of  the  packing 
houses.  But  in  order  to  aid  the  reader  to  visualize  what  was  ob- 
served, fairly  complete  accounts  are  given  of  the  operations  in  one 
new  house  fitted  with  modern  machinery  and  accessories  and  in 
another  new  house  operated  entirely  without  machinery  or  mechani- 
cal accessories.  They  are  both  well  situated  on  railroad  sidings  in 
good  orchard  districts,  and  they  packed  more  than  100,000  boxes 
each  in  1916. 

House  with  machinery. — The  house  operated  with  machinery  has 
a  floor  space  of  100  by  188  feet,  but  has  no  receiving  platform.  The 
roof  extends  over  the  driveway,  so  that  the  loads  at  the  receiving 
doors  are  under  protection.  The  fruit  was  received  and  checked 
in  at  three  doors.  On  the  receiving  side  the  floor  is  about  the  same 
height  as  a  wagon  bed,  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  building  the 
car-loading  plaform  is  continuous  with  the  floor  of  the  house  and  is 
under  roof.  Thus  the  main  floor  is  at  a  sufficient  height  to  allow  a 
partial  basement,  and  with  some  excavation  this  substory  has  been 
converted  into  a  box-making  department,  and  when  needed  it  is  ' 
also  used  for  temporary  storage  for  loose  fruit.  A  driveway  exca- 
vated beneath  the  main  floor  permits  vehicles  to  pass  entirely 


APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN    THE    NORTHWEST.  29 

through  the  substory,  either  to  deliver  fruit  or  to  load  boxes  for 
delivery  to  the  orchards.  The  boxes  were  owned  by  the  house  and 
were  charged  out  to  the  growers,  and  were  credited  in  when  returned 
with  loose  fruit,  so  that  the  grower  was  debited  only  with  any 
balance  which  might  show  against  him  at  the  close  of  the  season. 

The  hauling  was  done  largely  by  motor  -trucks,  but  wagons  also 
were  used.  The  truckers  worked  on  contract  with  the  house,  but 
all  hauling  charges  were  a  debit  against  the  grower.  The  fruit  was 
placed  from  the  vehicles  directly  on  gravity  conveyors  which  deliver 
the  boxes  at  any  position  in  the  house,  determined  by  the  length 
and  direction  of  the  track.  The  stacks  were  placed  five  boxes  high 
and  trucked  to  position  on  the  floor.  This  house  had  at  times  more 
than  10,000  boxes  of  loose  fruit  on  the  floor  and  in  the  subbasement. 

The  machines  and  accessories  occupied  a  space  50  by  60  feet  and 
were  placed  at  about  the  center  of  the  building,  transverse  to  the 
longer  dimension,  and  nearer  the  side  next  the  railroad,  so  that  the 
packed  fruit  was  delivered  from  the  nailing  presses  at  a  point  imme- 
diately in  front  of  a  door  leading  to  the  car-loading  platform.  This 
door  is  at  the  center  of  the  building  line.  Three  sizing  machines 
(see  fig.  4)  were  in  use  with  gravity  conveyors  immediately  back  of 
each  line  of  bins,  so  that  the  packers  with  one  step  could  set  the  boxes 
on  them.  These  tracks  led  directly  to  the  presses.  The  three  ma- 
chines were  side  by  side  and  were  so  spaced  that  four  lines  of  con- 
veyors served  them  all ;  that  is,  there  is  one  conveyor  on  the  outside 
of  each  of  the  two  outer  machines  and  one  in  each  interspace.  By  a 
90-degree  curve  the  outer  conveyors  were  brought  to  deliver  the 
boxes  at  the  same  position  as  the  short  conveyor  in  the  next  inter- 
space. A  box  press  was  placed  at  each  of  these  positions,  so  that 
the  fruit  could  be  placed  directly  upon  it  from  the  conveyors. 

At  the  head  of  each  machine  was  a  short  track  on  which  fruit  was 
placed  in  convenient  reach  of  the  feeder.  A  roller  conveyor  was  sus- 
pended directly  over  the  center  of  each  machine,  and  on  this  the 
empty  boxes  intended  for  the  packed  fruit  were  placed,  so  that  they 
were  in  convenient  reach  of  the  packers  at  all  times.  A  short  con- 
veyor extended  from  each  press  to  the  assembly  space  in  front  of 
the  door  above  mentioned. 

The  organization  of  the  packing  floor  consisted  of  one  general  fore- 
man, who  was  league  inspector  for  the  house ;  one  assistant,  who  man- 
aged the  floor:  one  receiving  clerk;  two  helpers,  who  put  the  fruit  in 
the  stacks;  one  trucker,  who  delivered  the  boxes  to  the  three  machines: 
one  man,  who  put  the  boxes  on  the  short  tracks  for  the  feeders ;  three 
feeders  (one  for  each  machine) ;  18  sorters  (six  to  each  machine, 
mostly  women)  ;  15  packers;  two  lidders;  and  one  helper,  one  assem- 
bler, and  one  checker  of  packed  fruit.  Forty-eight  persons  were 
actually  engaged  in  receiving,  trucking,  sorting,  grading,  and  pack- 


30  APPLE-PACKING   HOUSES  IN   THE   NORTHWEST. 

ing  the  fruit  and  delivering  it  to  the  men  who  put  it  into  either  the 
storeroom  or  the  cars.  The  output  was  averaging  1,80.0  boxes  per 
day.  There  were  two  storerooms  for  packed  fruit,  one  on  each  side  of 
the  assembling  space  and  facing  on  the  car-loading  platform.  These 
were  45  by  64  feet  but  were  inadequate  for  the  needs  of  the  house. 

House  without  machinery. — The  house  operating  without  ma- 
chines and  accessories,  is  a  new  structure  100  by  100  feet,  built  on 
sloping  ground  with  a  basement  storeroom  occupying  a  space  50  by 
100  feet  immediately  below  the  operating  space  and  on  the  side  of 
the  building  next  to  the  railway  tracks.  The  floor  of  this  room  is 
level  with  the  car-loading  platform.  The  fruit  is  received  at  three 
doors  on  the  upper  side  of  the  building,  and,  as  no  gravity  carriers 
are  used,  it  is  handled  entirely  by  men.  The  driver  placed  the  boxes 
on  a  shelf  across  the  doorway,  level  with  the  top  of  the  wagon  bed, 
and  from  this  position  two  men  removed  and  stacked  them.  The 
loose  fruit  in  this  house  occupied  more  than  half  the  main  floor,  and 
at  times  there  were  more  than  20,000  boxes  on  hand,  stacked  six 
high. 

The  operating  floor  was  48  by  54  feet,  situated  in  the  center  of  the 
space  at  the  side  farthest  from  the  receiving  doors.  The  packers' 
tables  were  placed  transverse  to  the  larger  diameter  of  the  space 
and  12  feet  from  center  to  center.  The  tables  are  10  feet  long,  3 
feet  wide,  and  30  inches  high.  They  are  of  frame  construction, 
covered  with  canvas,  and  divided  into  four  sections  each  by  strips 
across  the  top.  The  canvas  sags  between  these  strips  and  forms  four 
divisions  in  each  table.  These  tables  were  set  end  to  end,  thus 
forming  long  lines.  The  two  outer  lines  were  40  feet  long  and  the  two 
inner  lines  20  feet  long,  making  12  table  units  in  all.  At  the  end 
of  the  two  shorter  lines  were  placed  the  press  and  lidder's  supplies, 
and  short  wooden  slides  extending  about  half  way  up  the  floor  space 
were  used  for  running  the  packed  fruit  to  the  press. 

Each  table  unit  had  at  one  side  a  small  sorter's  table  18  by  30 
inches.  On  this  was  poured  one  box  of  fruit  at  a  time  and  one 
sorter  worked  at  each  of  these  small  tables.  He  removed  the  culls 
into  a  box  at  his  side,  separated  the  fruit  into  the  three  -standard 
grades  and  partially  sized  it.  Thus  he  used  two  of  the  divisions 
in  the  packer's  table  for  Extra  Fancy  and  two  for  Fancy,  these 
being  separated  into  the  larger  and  smaller  sizes.  .The  C  grade 
was  removed  and  placed  in  boxes  for  packing  later. 

One  trucker  delivered  the  boxes  of  loose  fruit  to  all  the  sorters 
and  removed  the  culls.  Each  sorter  poured  the  fruit  on  his  table. 
Two  men  selected  and  furnished  empty  boxes  to  the  packers,  checked 
the  packers'  cards,  removed  the  finished  boxes,  put  them  on  the  slides, 
and  ran  them  to  the  press.  The  lidder  took  the  boxes  from  the  slides, 
nailed  on  the  lids,  and  placed  each  box  in  a  chute  which  carried  it 


APPLE-PACKING    HOUSES  IN   THE    NORTHWEST.  31 

to  the  basement  storeroom.  A  boy  at  the  press  stamped  the  boxes 
while  the  lidder  was  nailing  them  and  the  checker  made  his  entry 
at  the  same  time.  The  boxes  went  down  the  chute  and  on  a  gravity 
track  which  carried  them  along  the  side  wall,  where  they  were 
taken  off,  assembled,  stacked,  and  labeled. 

All  of  this  work  was  done  by  contract  and  the  force  consisted  of 
one  foreman  (the  contractor),  three  men  receiving,  checking,  and 
stacking  the  fruit  in  the  house,  one  trucker  to  supply  the  sorters, 
12  sorters,  20  packers,  two  tenders  for  packers,  one  lidder,  one  lidder's 
Jielper,  and  one  checker  of  nailed  boxes.  This  list  does  not  include  the 
storeroom  and  car-loading  forces.  A  statement  of  the  daily  pack  was 
not  secured,  but  the  contractor  stated  that  he  was  putting  out  8,000 
boxes  per  week. 


001  069  774 


WASHINGTON  :  COVERNMEXT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :    19i; 


